Minutes too late
by Obsidian Buterfly
Summary: AU. We have all read stories about our favorite pair of twins and their love for each other,ne? Well, how about one in which they hate their other half? Warning: In an experimental stage. continuation depends on response received. Rated T for language
1. Chapter 1

"Where is it?" The low menacing voice growled next to my ear.

"…"

"Tell me or else..." The man put the loaded gun to my head, "you've got until the count of ten. One… two... three…"

"Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten,' I cut in and finished it for him, "There! Go ahead, shoot me!"

The man and his partner looked at me with wide eyes as if I had gone crazy. Hah! I wasn't crazy. No. In fact I was far from it. The only reason I had done that was because I knew what they had hoped I would not notice.

"You can't shoot me, can you?" I looked up at him with narrowed eyes; I could feel my blood trickle down the side of my face. I could also feel the dull throb of the wound from where this blood had originated. "The minute you shoot me, you lose. No one else knows where it is… you need me."

My captor's eyes narrowed in anger as he raised his gun and pointed it towards me.

Bang!

I stifled a cry just as a sharp pain seared though my shoulder. The bullet had embedded itself in my flesh.

"Just because I can't kill you, doesn't mean I won't hurt you." The man smirked once again. "So now then, tell me where. is. It?" he repeated his question slowly.

"…"

"Don't make this hard on yourself." His partner piped up. "Tell us and you won't have to suffer like this."

"Why?" I simply shot at him, "it's not like you'll just let me go once I tell you."

"We might." The man, Seishiro was his name I think, said in, what he thought was, a convincing tone.

"Screw you." I growled venomously, "the minute you get your hands on it, you will be more than willing to use my head as target practice."

"Don't say I didn't warn you." The partner aka Fuuma said with a sadistic grin. The man cracked his knuckle audibly as he advanced towards me.

-0-

"Oomph!"

"Where is she?" the man yanked my head up by pulling my hair. "Where is my sister, you filthy piece of s**t!"

"She is not your sister anymore…" I growled through clenched teeth. Another punch landed straight in my gut, making me double over. "She is... my wife…" I gasped as tears formed in my eyes.

"She did _not _marry a scumbag like you!" the man said as he kicked me one more time.

"Ungh!" My head hit the wall behind us as I collided in it due to the force of the attack.

"Where is she?" he pulled me up by the collar of my shirt before letting go and kicking me in my already bruised stomach.

Even though I was being repeatedly punched and kicked by the tall man, my lips remained sealed, not another word escaped from my mouth.

"Ashura stop it." one of his cronies walked forward and put a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from beating me any further. "She won't come back if he is dead."

This seemed to calm the man's anger as he nodded and took a step back from me. Leaving my bruised and bleeding body to remain curled up on the cold floor. He kicked me one last time before turning around and walking out of the room. The other thugs following him obediently. The iron door shut with a loud clang as soon as the last man had walked out.

I was enveloped in complete darkness once they switched off the only source of light in that dungeon-like room, from the outside.

_Will you marry me?_

…_Yes!!!_

Her sparkling eyes and that radiant smile were the last things that I saw as I lost consciousness.

-0-

"Yuui Valeria. Age: 20 years. Has been previously convicted of robberies, property damage and car-thefts. Already served twice in a jail for minors." Fuuma was the one who read this off of a list as he pulled a seat next to the one that I was bound to and sat down.

"Tell me, what _does_ it feels like?" He inquired in an audible whisper. "To have finally risen from the level of your common, everyday gangster to that of a dangerous murderer and drug dealer?"

"I did not kill anyone!" I grit my teeth in anger. I would have hit him as well but, alas, I was shackled to a bolted chair.

"So you do not deny that you have been involved in drug-trafficking?" the man asked calmly as he scribbled down something.

"…"

"We might let you off easy if you just tell us where you hid the box?" Fuuma offered in a low tone.

"I don't think the police works that way… _officer_." I ground out the last word.

"Where _is_ it?" Fuuma rose from his chair and forced me to look in his eyes as he pulled the hair at the back of my head.

"Why is it that only you and Seishiro are the ones who are interested in the whereabouts of the box?" I said in mock thoughtful voice.

"Shut it Valeria." Seishiro appeared next to Fuuma in my blurry line of vision.

"Poking your nose in matters where it doesn't concern you," Fuuma said as he pulled my hair back further back, pulling my head back in the process as well. Stars were beginning to appear before my eyes as my vision darkened around the edges. "It's going to get you killed, one of these days."

"No. Really?" I said in mock disbelief. I knew getting them angry was not the smartest idea but I'm not exactly the smartest person around… or so everyone leads themselves to believe.

A dull thud sounded as something hard and metallic collided with my skull. The last thoughts that ran in my head before I blacked out were of the one person I hated the most.

_This is all your fault! _

_But I…_

_I don't care! She died because of you! You were too late!_

_I-I…_

_It's your fault that mom is dead!_

_B-but…_

_I never want to see you again! I hate you Yuui!_

_Hate you Yuui…_

_Hate you…_

_Hate…_

This was the only emotion I had left for him, for my other half, for my twin brother… Fai.

-0-

My name is Fai D Flourite. I was born as a twin. From childhood to early adolescence, my whole world revolved around the only two important people in my life. My mother, Chi Flourite, and my twin brother, Yuui D Flourite. Even though we were poor, we were still a happy family. Poverty had never been a problem for any of us. Each member of our little family content at having the other two around.

This was the case until five years ago.

Five years ago, my whole world had come crashing down on me. Everything had changed on _that _fateful day. The day when my mother… died.

It had been an ordinary day, like any other. We had been going about our daily business as usual, helping our mother sell homemade items after school. We always headed over to the town marketplace since that was where we would get the most customers.

It had been a pretty good day actually. We had sold so much in just such a short amount of time. But in our excitement of getting everything done so quickly, he had failed to notice the oncoming speeding vehicle as he had skipped across the road. Mom, on the other hand, had noticed everything. Just a split second before the jeep had run over Yuui, mom had pushed him out of harm's way. But in doing so, she herself had become the target.

The driver had fled the spot before anyone could have detained him. Mom was rushed to the hospital, but treatment was expensive. The doctors had asked for money, a lot of it. They didn't even care that we were just a two kids, who had no means of obtaining the amount that they had required.

Even so, Yuui had run off, asking me to stay with mom while he arranged for the money. My mother, my beautiful gentle mother, had to endure for five long hours as she had struggled to stay alive, holding onto my hand, asking for Yuui to come. Finally it had been too much for her.

She had died right there, in the general ward of the town's hospital. Waiting for my twin to arrive, his name always remained on her lips, even as she had breathed her last that was the only word she had uttered. _Yuii…_

He had come only minutes later. Happily waving about the money, asking the doctors to start the treatment. But what use would it have been? She was gone. Gone, because he wasn't there when she needed him, wasn't there when each and every single breath of hers had called out to him. he had abandoned her. Had arrived too late.

Minutes too late…

And for this reason alone, I hate him. Hate the only family member I have left. People may call it foolish. They may call me an idiot or a jerk. But they don't know what it's like. What it's like to have to watch someone die a painfully slow death, every moment passed in agonizing wait. Hoping for them to come and save you. They don't know what it's like to see someone slip right through your fingers, like sand, to be lost forever…

And for this reason, _I hate my twin brother, I hate my other half, I hate… Yuui D Flourite._

-0-

I can still remember it, as though if it had happened only yesterday. Mom had pushed me out of the way just a fraction of a second before it had hit me. But doing so had cost her dearly; it had cost her, her life…

You may be thinking, why didn't the doctors start the treatment right away? They could have gotten the payment later, right? Why did they wait for so long?

Well let me tell you something. In this world everything has an order and a place where it can fit into. The ones on top are those who have power and those who have money. Everyone else is just meant to follow them around. This place had been no different. The doctors who would selflessly help those in pain, they were nothing more than fairytales in the world where we lived. Everything revolved around money. In our world, the doctors did not become doctors to help those in pain. No. they became doctors to earn themselves money, money that they wrung out of the poor and rich alike. Only difference being, the rich at least got the treatment for their ailments.

The poor… they are usually just left to suffer for their sins. The sins of not being powerful and rich…

It was that day when my life changed completely. When I realized that in order to have a place in this world, I had to be just like the world. Kind and gentle souls were always trampled and broken down. There was no place for people like that.

This realization had been the breakthrough in my 15 year old life. If I were to survive in this place, then Yuui D Flourite would have to die. His gentle soul had no place in this world and so, he died. In his place was born, a cold-hearted and aggressive Yuui Valeria…

Yuui Valeria was an entirely different being, who bore no resemblance to the old Yuui Flourite. However this new Yuui did share one aspect with his other half.

_The hatred for his twin…._

-0-

_**A/N: Wow! **_**Another**_** new story. Seriously, I think I have got to learn to finish my old projects before starting a new one.**_

_**Oh well, what's done is done.**_

_**I got the idea of this story while I went to watch a movie with my friends earlier today. It was actually a story about two twin brothers who didn't really like each other at all. And my brain went into runaway mode and got me thinking that we all have read about how much Fay and Yuui love each other as brothers. How about something in which they actually hated each other? Well this is how this AU story/drabble thingy was born.**_

_**It's continuation greatly depends on the sort of response that I receive for this first chapter/prologue. If this idea is well received then I might decide to continue otherwise I'll just leave it here.**_

_**Provided if I continue with this, then this chapter will be changed and slightly modified to give it a proper form. Right now it's just experimental.**_

_**Leave a review if you want me to continue.**_

_**Ciao!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Few months back:**

"Oye Valeria, the boss wants to see you." I glanced at the man through half open eyes before closing them once more. Out of habit, I folded my arms behind my head and put my legs on top of the table to lean in a casually relaxed way.

"Didn't you hear?" the man asked once more, "The boss wants to see you." The guy was newbie. Probably didn't know how things worked around here. So I decided to overlook his mistake and let him have another chance. Everyone else knew that their job was to deliver the message and leave.

"Vale.."

"I got it the first time you said it." I finally glanced in his direction, my ice-y blue eyes, narrowing in anger. The guy took the hint and left without another word.

"You're just letting anyone join the gang these days," I complained as I walked in the boss's office. "That newbie is really annoying, Sis."

That's right. The boss of my gang is also my adoptive Big Sister. The woman is probably in her late forties or early fifties, with a rather odd taste in clothing. She is an eccentric gal who has a strange obsession with guns and firearms. It used to creep me out when I had first joined her gang, but, I had long since learnt that a gun in her hand is the most harmless thing in the world while being the deadliest weapon as well. Didn't make much sense, right?

Let me clarify, when a gun is handed to her, it becomes the deadliest because of her 100 percent accuracy while shooting. It is the most harmless since no matter what target she was given or under what conditions she was shooting, she never missed a single target. So unless you were the target she was after, you had nothing to fear.

"You complain about every new member, Yuui." The brunette smiled as she spun around in her chair around to face me.

"It's your fault that you make wrong choices and let in incompetent idiots." I huffed in response.

"I let you in too." Her smile transformed to a teasing grin.

"That would be the only right choice that you have made so far," I grinned as I pulled out a chair and seated myself, in a manner similar to how I had been sitting before the newbie had come. "So what is it this time?"

"Nothing big," she replied as she pulled out a photograph from underneath the folders resting on top of her desk, "I need you to take care of this man." The photograph that she had handed me was of a pale brown haired man with an awful lot of freckles covering his visage.

"What did this one do?" I asked, my tone taking on a serious businesslike quality.

"He's been striking deals and fixing matches for quite some time now," she said as she riffled through various files, "It's caused us to lose a lot of money over the past few months."

"Why pick me?" I asked.

"No particular reason," she replied airily, "I just thought you'd like to personally get payback from the guy who caused you to lose your savings."

"Make this your second right choice, Sis." I lowered my feet from the table and stood up, "what's his name?"

"Stark Dimwit." Sis enlightened me with a grin.

"Dimwit?" I laughed.

"Yes," the woman nodded with a chuckle. "Now this is how we will be handling this guy. You and…"

-0-

"Why are you hiding up here by yourself Naomi?" I asked as I climbed the tiled roof and made my way across to my girlfriend.

"The music was giving me a headache." She said a little too quickly as she furiously rubbed her eyes and turned her back towards me. I instantly knew that something was wrong. Naomi loved loud noisy music; _I _was the one who had a problem with it. She never got headaches by listening to rock. Nope, that would be me. But if I was fine till now then how was it that she was getting a headache?

"Naomi," I called her name softly as I seated myself next to the grey eyed girl and turned her around to face me. She complied but lowered her face in an attempt to hide her puffy red rimmed eyes. "Have you been crying?"

"No." she sniffled at the same time giving away her lie.

"What's wrong?" I asked her gently.

"It's nothing." She shook her head.

"Naomi if something is bothering you, you should tell me."

"It's nothing Fay," she looked at me with a fake smile plastered across her face, "What makes you think something is wrong?"

"I can tell when you are lying, you know that right?" I said in a quiet tone. I could easily tell when a smile was real or not. After all, I was the one who had used the fake smiles to fool the world one time too many. Or that had been the case till I met Naomi.

Sakura, Syaoran's girlfriend had introduced me to the girl on her seventeenth birthday party. That was three years ago. Syaoran and Syaoron were my two best friends. The boys were twins, just like me and Yuui. Only difference was that while we were identical to the last atom at least in a physical sense, those two had only one differentiating factor. Syaoron's eyes were two different colors. One was chocolate brown like his twin but the other one was an icy blue. But while me and my twin had been alike in the physical sense and different when it came to personality, these brothers were the exact opposite. Their personalities were similar to the last bit.

Anyhow, we're getting sidetracked here.

Naomi had just moved into town back then. She had known Sakura from early childhood and had met her boyfriend and his twin ages ago. I was introduced to the girl by Sakura due to the fact that she had thought that we would make a cute couple. That had been one weird and awkward introduction.

At school Naomi had stuck to me like glue because I was the only one she knew who was taking all classes that she was. At first she had been an annoyance. No matter how hard I tried to shake her off, the girl never got the hint. Or maybe she always chose to ignore it. But then as time went by, she grew on me. So much that I was unable to concentrate on anything without her around.

She had really changed me. This energetic, fun loving and outgoing girl had taught me the meaning living life to the extreme. After almost one and a half year had gone by, we had become a couple. Well at first it had been just some silly gossip around the campus but it had led us to realize our true feeling for one another. Thus we became an official couple.

Just as Naomi had learnt to interpret my moods and feelings correctly, so had I. I could tell when she was troubled or sad or happy. Ever since she had returned from her hometown last month, Naomi had been growing distant towards me for some reason. Normally she just shared her problems with me of her own accord so I had waited for her to come to me but now…

This was just too much. Just what exactly was it that she had taken to hiding behind fake smiles and lies? That was something that I had done. This wasn't like her at all.

"I'm sorry Fay." She whispered after a long time as she looked away. Her voice was almost drowned out by the loud music blaring beneath our feet. "I can't see you anymore." She said as she got to her feet refusing to look me in the eye.

"What?" I laughed in disbelief. "This is a joke, right?"

"No Fay. I'm serious." Her tone was firm. I looked at the girl's back in shock, half expecting her to turn around and yell something along the lines of "gotcha!" however she did nothing of that sort. "It will be better for both of us if we just forget it all."

"Why?" I was confused. What had gone wrong?

Without giving any response, she took a few steps towards the window; the one we used to get to the roof.

"Naomi, why?" I asked, jumping to my feet as well.

"It doesn't matter why." Her tone was frosty all of a sudden.

"It does matter." I grabbed her arm just before she could climb back inside.

"Fay, let go of my arm." She ordered quietly.

"Not before you tell me why?" I replied stubbornly.

"Fay. Let go." She repeated in a firmer tone.

"Tell me and I will."

"Fay ju…"

"No." I cut in.

"Fay please." I could hear the plea in her voice.

"Naomi, just tell me already." I asked in a quiet voice.

"You want to know?" she all but yelled as she whirled around to face me, angry tears were spilling down her cheeks. Oh, how I wished to wipe them all away, make all her worries disappear. But I would only be able to do that if she let me. Her next words were enough to shake me to the very core. "I'm getting married next month! Happy now? I want to break up with you because Ashura wants me to marry some politician's son!"

"Married?!" I could not keep my voice from shaking as I took an involuntary step back. In my shock, I didn't even notice when I let go of her arm. "Naomi, you're only nineteen!"

"It doesn't matter," her voice was quiet once more, "it all over."

"Naomi, I-" I started but she just cut in.

"Fay," tears were still streaming down her face but her voice was controlled. "You can't do anything to help me. Please, just let me go." With that she turned once more and left. I don't know how long I stood there, watching the dark window through which she had disappeared or when the party was over. All that I remembered at that time was her tear-stained face and bloodshot, puffy, grey eyes as she had pleaded me to let her go…

_**A/N: I know. I know. Not a very good place to end the chapter but at least I finally updated. Be happy! I was looking up some henna designs for my cousins' weddings when I found this chapter lying forgotten in a folder. If I waited for to fid time to write more nd make it longer, it would have been ages before I touched it again. Sorry, this fic is not one of my top priorities right now.**_

_**But I still hope you didn't think it was completely trash. Don't forget to review. ^.^**_

_**PS. Fay is the twin who died in the manga and Yuui is the one who took up his brother's name and went to Celes with Ashura and later on went on the journey with Tsubasa gang. Though I should clarify.**_


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